Editorial

Budgeting for change

Olympic gold medals, which we now know are worth $20,000 Cdn.,
are won in hundredths of a second or millimetres — tiny fractions measured
after years of sweat and effort to be just that little bit faster, stronger,
better than other competitors.

The incremental increases in putting on the Olympics are
measured in whole numbers that are somewhat larger, but they too may be
measured after years of sweat and effort.

Early in 1998, the year Vancouver and Whistler edged out
Calgary and Quebec City for the right to put forward the Canadian bid for the
2010 Olympics, British Columbia was a very different place. Then-Premier Glen
Clark said: “The overwhelming advantage to hold (the 2010 Olympics) is the
jobs, the investment, the exposure, the potential for tourism outweighs any
provincial government cost with respect to infrastructure that might be
incurred…. The Olympic Games are the perfect venue to support B.C.’s effort to
grow jobs.”

Jobs, of course, are not an issue today; finding enough people
to do those jobs is the problem. Investment, exposure and the potential for the
tourism industry remain valid reasons for hosting the Games.

The Olympic bid didn’t make many headlines and really wasn’t on
many people’s minds in early 1998. Only two or three news organizations from
B.C. even sent reporters to Toronto for the Canadian Olympic Association’s
meeting that November. Toronto was still a frontrunner for the 2008 Summer
Olympics and some questioned why the COA was even dealing with a 2010 bid while
Toronto was still in the hunt for 2008.

The Vancouver-Whistler bid looked considerably different back
then. Among the promises was a new national integrated alpine ski training
centre at Whistler — Whistler still hadn’t struck out in its efforts to put on
early-season World Cup races and Alpine Canada was less entrenched in Calgary.

But more to the point, everything proposed was on a smaller
scale. In what now seems a quaint notion, proponents talked about the bid
working within Whistler’s official community plan and its cap on development.
“We can have an intelligent, low-impact Games without having to change our
lives for years,” one Whistler advocate said. The board of the bid society was
listening to Whistler’s concerns and was finally getting the message that
building a new athletes’ village, that would become employee housing after the
Games, wouldn’t fly. Moreover, employee housing had to be dealt with long
before 2010.

Plans called for housing 1,000 athletes, coaches and trainers
in existing hotels in the village that could be cordoned off and secured. Only
500 accredited media were expected in Whistler — and this was when the plans
still included freestyle skiing and snowboard events in Whistler, although the
bobsleigh track was going to be on Grouse Mountain.

The athletes’ village is now being built to accommodate 2,500
athletes, coaches and trainers. VANOC is attempting to secure hotel rooms for
1,500 accredited media in Whistler.

The world has changed at least as much as Whistler’s Olympic
plans in the last decade. Everything from 9/11 to relations with First Nations
to the invention of skicross has had an impact on plans for the 2010 Olympics.

The opportunities, as outlined by former premier Clark, are
still there. In fact, there may be more opportunities than were recognized in
1998. The involvement of the Squamish and Lil’wat Nations in the Whistler
community and the town of Squamish’s involvement in the Nordic centre come to
mind.

But none of these opportunities come for free.

As plans for hosting the Olympics have changed, so too have
Whistler’s plans to take advantage of the opportunities that come with the
Olympics. Incrementally, the master plan for Whistler has become more
complicated, messier. Where once there was a general understanding of how big
Whistler would become and some feeling for what it would look like at buildout,
the Olympics are taking us to buildout-plus.

And it’s not just that there will be more development in
Whistler. On the other side of 2010 some parts of the Whistler model will
change. There will be more opportunities for visitors to spend time outside the
village area, more commuting up and down the Sea to Sky Highway, possibly more
absentee business owners, likely more retirees. And certainly there will be
increased competition for people’s recreation/vacation time and new challenges
brought about by climate change.

Juxtaposed with this changing, evolving picture of Whistler is
a constant. Back in 1998 Whistler’s year-round hotel occupancy rates were a
little over 50 per cent and the town was roughly two-thirds of the way to
buildout. Today, the year-round occupancy rate is a little above 50 per cent
and building is starting to wind down.

It is against this backdrop that we, collectively, must weigh
opportunities and future financial commitments.